December 2, 2009
Staring intently from the cover of the November Atlantic magazine is John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Fetterman is one of The Atlantic's "27 Brave Thinkers Who are Shaping the Future."
"Why 27?" the introduction to the article asks, "Because after months of research, tabulation, and debate about hundreds of candidates, that's how many we could agree on."
Fair enough. This is an idiosyncratic list put together by the editors of one particular magazine—people whose ways of thinking probably have a great deal in common with one another. But that doesn't make the list any less noteworthy or any less revealing.
Some of the individuals named really are doing amazing things. Fetterman is a prime example.
Braddock, an old steel town, has lost 90% of its population and, according to The Atlantic, is "riddled with crime and violence."
Fetterman, a young and heavily tattooed giant with a public-policy degree from Harvard and a mountain of ambition, wants to save the city by luring artists and small businesses with loft apartments, cheap rent, and other inducements. He imagines Braddock—only a few miles from Pittsburgh—as a community for creative types and eco-friendly businesses, filled with public gardens and culture centers.
We should pray that he succeeds and that Braddock serves as a model for other depressed cities. Fetterman's ideas can, in fact, have a great impact on the future for the good.
Other choices are more dubious. Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal is cited for moving Jay Leno from late night (11PM Eastern) to prime time (10PM Eastern). "[I]f cheap and easily produced fare like Leno's works in prime time, it could completely change the dynamics of network television." That's nice I suppose, but is something a good deal less than meaningful future-shaping.
President Barack Obama is cited as changing the future in "Business and Economics" for nationalizing our auto industry. There is something a bit frightening about someone with no business or corporate experience changing the future of business and economics in America by nationalizing industry.
It brings to mind former liberal senator and Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. Upon retiring from politics, McGovern opened a bed and breakfast that subsequently went bankrupt. Afterwards he reflected:
I wish that during the years I was in public office I had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better Senator and a more understanding presidential contender... To create job opportunities, we need entrepreneurs who will risk their capital against an expected payoff. Too often, however, public policy does not consider whether we are choking off those opportunities.
The far-Left senator started talking the language of the free-market. Now that's thinking that could change the future of business and economics for the good.
The Atlantic list also includes perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook founder Mark Zucherberg, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park.
While the individual "brave new thinkers" are a fascinating study, what struck me as far more important were the categories the Atlantic editors used to classify the thinkers. The twenty-seven were divided into seven buckets: Business and Economics (6), International Relations (4), Health and Medicine (2), Science and Technology (4), Media (7), Society (2), and Politics (2).
While the article does not say that this is an exhaustive list, the lack of any comment on the categories implies that these are the areas of human endeavor that really count in shaping the future. The trouble is, although each of the seven categories has a significant impact, there is much more to the future of humanity than can be accounted for by these seven fields.
